Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- PART ONE INTRODUCTION
- PART TWO FORMATIVE INFLUENCES
- PART THREE THE TERMS OF THE CONTEST
- PART FOUR THE RECONSTITUTION OF LIBERAL LANCASHIRE
- PART FIVE FIELDS OF RECRUITMENT
- 10 Communal politics
- 11 The rise and fall of the Free Traders
- 12 Labour
- PART SIX GOING TO THE COUNTRY
- PART SEVEN CONCLUSION
- APPENDICES
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- PART ONE INTRODUCTION
- PART TWO FORMATIVE INFLUENCES
- PART THREE THE TERMS OF THE CONTEST
- PART FOUR THE RECONSTITUTION OF LIBERAL LANCASHIRE
- PART FIVE FIELDS OF RECRUITMENT
- 10 Communal politics
- 11 The rise and fall of the Free Traders
- 12 Labour
- PART SIX GOING TO THE COUNTRY
- PART SEVEN CONCLUSION
- APPENDICES
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We realize that an accession of strength to Labour representn. in the H. of C. is not only required by this country in the interests of labour but that it would increase progressive forces generally and the Liberal party as the best available instrument of progress.
Herbert Gladstone, 1903Organised labour was the most powerful of all the sectional groups. Labour and socialist candidates were the only ones who could offer a serious challenge to the dominion of the national parties. This chapter will show that during this period Labour attained its greatly enhanced electoral importance within the framework of an alliance with Liberalism. C. P. Scott's efforts in favour of this kind of ‘progressive party’ in the 1890s had, as has been seen, some measure of success in 1900. The candidature of Fred Brocklehurst of the I.L.P. in Manchester South West had been a matter of discussion between the Manchester Liberals and the Liberal Whips and they were ready enough to grant him a straight fight against the Tories. So although at the General Election the divisional Liberal Association was apparently too ruffled by the manner of his intervention to feel inclined to give him official backing, his own declarations in favour of the Liberal candidates in other divisions, along with their reciprocation, meant that he had substantial Liberal support. In Gorton too the Liberals were all out to conciliate Labour, though there they hoped to do it on a Lib–Lab basis.
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- Information
- Lancashire and the New Liberalism , pp. 311 - 340Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1971